


I'd Like To Believe

by blingeekingdave



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Anzu and Yuugi AKA Ryou's new cheerleaders, Anzu is ready to rumble, Blind Date, M/M, Post-Canon, Ryou has committed to this, Slice of Life, non dsod compliant probably, relationships and pairings to be tagged as they come up, they want to see him happy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7744855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blingeekingdave/pseuds/blingeekingdave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe the name Bakura didn't have to be synonymous with being alone.</p><p>In which Ryou Bakura spends too much damn time in his apartment, so Anzu and Yuugi set him up on a series of blind dates to get him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Ryou Bakura did not wish to live a complicated life, so he didn't. Mostly, he stayed at home after high school, making extra money off of commissions for Monster World campaigns and figurines. He hadn't felt the motivation or drive to go to University, so he hadn't. It was simpler that way. For the most part, he did keep in touch with the others, mostly Yuugi. He could tell that Yuugi worried about him, how he only seemed to leave his apartment for groceries, supplies, and to see the short duelist when he asked. What other reason was there to go out? The outside was unwelcoming and overwhelming. The way he lived was simple. Lonely.

 

Lonely. He stared at the ceiling as laid on his bed. Sometimes, he wondered if it really was simpler, the way he lived. A whisper in his head told him that he'd be alone no matter what, he should at least do so in comfort. There was no one to blame the whisper on. How he lived wasn't even fair. His mostly absent father still paid most of his living expenses, perhaps out of guilt. He turned onto his side with a sigh, trying to somehow justify all this to himself. Maybe he shouldn't.

 

A ringer sounded. It made him groan to think that he would have to talk to someone so suddenly. Ryou let it go off for nearly the whole tone before answering the phone. “Bakura.”

 

“Hey, Bakura-kun!” A female voice came from the other end, chattering excitedly into his ear. “It's Anzu. Yuugi and I are going to be at the arcade in an hour to hang out and play some games. You'll be there, right? I knew I could count on you. See you there!”

 

She hung up before he could even get a word in, leaving him with his mouth hanging open for a moment before he moved his phone from his ear. It would seem he was going to be at the arcade in an hour. Joy. With a deep breath, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. If he was going out, he'd need to put on a cleaner set of clothes, after all. Hopefully not too clean, though, he hated to attract too many people when he went out. His face was a curse, and he would never escape it.

 

Might as well get this over with.

 

XXXXX

 

Ryou was pounced on as soon as he entered the arcade. Immediately, Anzu was pulling him over to where Yuugi was waiting. Both of them looked excited about something, and he wasn't sure whether or not he should be worried about it. He scratched his cheek in a nervous gesture.

 

“Um. Hi?” Really, he wasn't sure what to say. Anzu and Yuugi were both grinning at him, and it was kind of unsettling.

 

“I'm glad you could make it, Bakura. It's nice to see you come out like this,” Yuugi said to him in a way that made him melt on the inside. If he had a best friend, it would probably be Yuugi. His dueling friend had always been there for him, even after everything that had happened, and it had been a comfort to him for a couple years now. It was probably weird to say that he would die for Yuugi, but he would die for Yuugi. “Come play a few games with us. It'll be fun.”

 

Ryou nodded. Yuugi looked slightly concerned by his silence, so he tried to give a weak smile to let him know he was alright. It sort of worked. After all, Yuugi always seemed to be trying to get him to smile more. When had he stopped? It was hard to remember.

 

Anyway, they went around playing some of the arcade games, and Ryou was having a pretty good time talking with Yuugi and listening to Anzu go on about all sorts of small talk and gossip when she wasn't playing. He had even sort of laughed a couple of times, which meant he was really enjoying himself probably. However, when he was feeling ready to go, it didn't seem like the other two were ready to let him.

 

“So, Bakura,” Yuugi started, suspiciously sweet. “We couldn't help but notice that you only come out when we ask you to. It has us a little worried, and we want to see you getting out and having a good time. So, we thought we'd make a little plan, but before we tell you what it is, you have to promise to go through with it. Please, Bakura?”

 

For a moment, he just stood there, blinking dumbly. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, a small frown marring his face. “What are you two planning,” he asked, suspicion clear. The two of them only smiled at him, giving away nothing. Ryou sighed. “Fine. I'll do it.”

 

“Great!” Anzu to up the mantle, looking far too happy to be doing so. “I've taken the liberty of setting up a few blind dates for you. Before you freak out, we aren't trying to pressure you into getting into a relationship. The goal is for you to get out and make some new connections, okay? Don't look at me like that. We do know a few things about you, even if you always have to act so mysterious. The first date isn't even for a couple days. You're going to have fun, Bakura. I promise.”

 

He remained weary to accept that answer, but one look at Yuugi had him faltering. His precious, spiky haired friend really thought this was a good idea, and wanted to see him happy. It made him frown for an entirely different reason. Yuugi reached out and took his hand.

 

“Will you walk back to the game shop with us, Bakura?” he asked with the kind of smile that never failed to subdue Ryou. “We'll let you go after that.”

 

“Yeah... Yeah, okay,” he conceded with a nodded, and Yuugi took his hand. It honestly made him blush a little, which in turn made him feel stupid. Anyway, he'd admit to himself that it was kind of nice. Yuugi was always really supportive, and Anzu was trying to help to. He wasn't sure how it made him feel, but he certainly didn't feel bad when he parted ways from them at the Kame Game Shop.

 

Anzu had promised to give him a call the next day to check in on him, and she insisted that she would come over the day after that to 'help him get ready' for his first date. He didn't know whether she didn't think he would do a good job or if she was just that excited about the whole thing. He supposed it didn't make too much of a difference either way.

 

Ryou didn't have a clue as to what he should be expecting from these dates, and it had him slightly dazed. What if he hated all of them? What if they were only dating him because of his damn face? He supposed he should have more faith in Anzu than to set him up with just anyone. They knew he had never been a fan of any of the girls who were in his 'fan club.' He had to sneer just thinking about it.

 

Back at his apartment, he was left to go about the rest of his day as usual. He did just that, trying to get himself to stop thinking so much about the whole dating thing. That night, he lay in bed again, and he thought some more about the same things he had earlier that day. Maybe he didn't have to be lonely. Maybe this was a sign that he wouldn't be lonely, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Either way, he wasn't about to back out now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dating begins.

The next day, Anzu called. Ryou had woken up in the same clothes he had went out in the day before, but that was okay, and Anzu didn't have to know about that. They talked for a little while, or he mostly listened while she spoke. Ryou never really had all that much to say. He had fun yesterday. Yes, he was still going to go along with the whole date thing. He's been partial to the color red lately. No, he wasn't planning on going out at all today. 'was he nervous? Not yet, but he was sure that it would happen in the moment.

 

It went on like that for a little while before Anzu moved on to other small talk, updating him on some of the other people from the group. Yuugi, and by extension Anzu, were the only ones he heard from much these days. Hearing updates about people like Jou, Honda, Kaiba, Shizuka, and even Otogi was kind of nice. It made him feel ever so slightly included in the group. Not that he really ever saw these people or knew when he next would. Yuugi would say he was part of the group, though. At least that.

 

The conversation ended, Anzu told him when she'd be coming over the next day, and they hung up. With a sigh, Ryou went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. What was even going to do for the rest of the day? He supposed that he would probably work on his commissions. There was also a campaign that he was writing for fun. He had a whole collection of those, but no real use for them. They were for fun, though. There wasn't a whole lot of fun to be had when you were Ryou Bakura. That was depressing. Ryou felt kind of depressing, staring at the teapot and waiting for it to boil. It would probably take extra long just because he was staring at it. Rude.

 

The water thankfully boiled in an appropriate amount of time, and Ryou had his cup of tea shortly after. It was time to get some writing done. Or something.

 

XXXXX

 

Ryou Spent most of the morning mentally preparing himself for what would happen next, but he was certain that he would never really be ready. He was going to be going on a date. A date with another person. Had he even been on one of those before? He was seriously doubting that he had ever been on a date before, and that meant that this was going to be his first one. Fantastic. No pressure or anything. It was just a blind date with a possible stranger or near stranger. Anzu had mentioned at some point that he had met all the people he was being set up with. Still, there were too many obscure duelists that it could be. Possibly ones of the annoying little ones-- Weevil? Haga? He didn't know, didn't care.

 

He was in the process of pacing a trail into his carpet when he was startled by a knock on the door. Quickly, he failed to compose himself and went to let in a smiling Anzu holding a shopping bag. What was that even for?

 

“Hi, Bakura. I'm sure you don't think you're ready, but you're going to do great!” She marched right in, dropping the shopping bag on his coffee. Looking at him, she laughed a little. “Did you forget to brush your hair today? You might want to go do something about that.”

 

Ryou may have flushed a bit at that because yes, he had forgotten to brush his hair while he worried. At least he had dressed himself. He went to his room to fetch his hairbrush, and Anzu was following him. He raised his brown. “What are you doing?”

 

“Is that what you plan on wearing, Bakura? I had this really great idea of what you should wear. Can I just take a little peak into your closet? Please?” Anzu clasped her hands in front of her, trying to look innocent he supposed. With a sigh, he just started brushing his hair.

 

“Yeah, okay. There's, um, a few weird things in there, so don't worry about any of that,” he said, averting his gaze and scratching his cheek with his free hand. There were some fake spiders and some occult things that he kept in there. It was no big deal really. He heard Anzu squeak after opening his close, and okay, maybe he needed to cover a few things in there, but he didn't usually have people coming into his room and rummaging through his closet.

 

He ran the brush repeatedly through his fair, frustrated by the tangles. His hair was at least twice the length of Anzu's, and that had to mean it was at least twice as much of a pain. It was annoying, but he didn't think he could stand to cut it. Short hair wasn't even something he could imagine himself having. Ryou was certain that he would look absolutely terrible with a buzz cut.

 

“Bakura,” Anzu sang, getting his attention. “I really think you should wear this. Can you put it on and then come back out? I have something special for you. This is really fun, and I may be little bit too excited for you. Just a little bit.”

 

“Okay. I'll just, um, finish brushing my hair first.” Anzu smiled at him, leaving the room and closing the door behind her. He took the time brushing his hair to try and calm down. Anzu was going about fifty kilometers an hour. Meanwhile, he was in the slow lane with all the geezers only going ten. Looking over at his bed, Ryou saw that she had picked out a plain, black v-neck and a pair of... skinny jeans? Oh. Yeah, he did own a pair of those. They were on sale.

 

In what he felt was timely manner, Ryou finished up in his room and went back out to the sitting room. Anzu had pulled out a large, red garment from the shopping bag. He blinked, and she held it out for him to see when she noticed him. It appeared to be a long, red, duster cardigan, and it even had a hood. It was really nice and all, but he didn't understand why Anzu had brought it.

 

“I was at the mall earlier, just window shopping, you know, but I saw this, and I knew that I had to get it for you to wear on your date. You told me you were into red lately, right? This is perfect. I really feel like it's just your style. Come on, try it on!” Anzu held the garment out to him enthusiastically, but he was taken aback.

 

“What? Mazaki-san, you have let me pay you back for this.” He couldn't fathom that someone would spend the money on something that nice for him when he was admittedly a pretty shitty friend.

 

“Yuugi told me you would say something like that.” she huffed, throwing the cardigan at him, so he had to catch it, “and _please_ , call me Anzu. You really don't have to be so formal with me anymore. We're friends, Bakura.”

 

“Anzu-san, I can't accept this–” She cut him off with a look. Damn, she really meant business about this. Anzu held that deadly look on him until he gave in and slid on the cardigan. It really was as nice of of a material as it looked, very soft on the bare part of his arms. Anzu may have been right about it being kind of perfect for him. He could pull it around himself and hide under the hood, and it was just his style if he actually had one. “Isn't this a little a little warm for the weather out?”

 

Anzu smiled at him, and he was instantly suspicious. “So about your date,” she started, attempting to sound innocent when she clearly wanted. “It's going to be at an ice skating rink. While I'm dropping bombs, I might as well mention that I gave your date your number. Just to ensure you find each other!”

Those were definitely a couple of bombs, and it took a couple minutes for Anzu to coax him down into something resembling calm. Thank fully, there were no more surprises after that. From there, it was all talk and reassurance, which he admittedly needed. She never did agree to let him pay her back, but he promised to bake something for her. By the time Anzu left, he looked and felt a little better about life, and he wasn't pacing a hole into his floor anymore.

 

“By the way, you need to be online on Skype tomorrow around 5pm. If you aren't, I'll know,” were the foreboding words she left him with.

 

Shortly after she was gone, his phone buzzed with a text.

 

_'Looking forward to our date, see you soon ;)'_

 

Fantastic.

 

XXXXX

 

About an hour later, he was standing awkwardly outside the building with the ice rink. The worst of his horror movie collection could hardly get him to flinch, but this? He was kind of terrified. After about five minutes of standing there and receiving many a weird look, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

 

_'I can see you out there. Come inside!'_

 

The color drained from his face for a second, and he shuffled into the building to look around. Nothing caught his attention at first, but then his eyes met with a set of green ones. Otogi Ryuuji? Was that who he had been set up with? Otogi was smiling a sly thing and walking over, but Ryou probably just looked ridiculous and awkward. He was stiff as a board by the time the other man got over to him.

 

“Hey there, Bakura, did you get all gussied up for little old me? You look really cute,” Otogi punctuated his words with a wink, and oh god, Ryou could feel his face heating up. It didn't end there, though. Otogi put an arm around his shoulders, guiding him further in and towards the ice skate rentals.

 

“...Hello, Otogi-san,” he manged to get out after a moment of effort. “I wasn't expecting you.” Really, he hadn't been expecting anything, mostly because he didn't know what to expect in the first place. That was probably really stupid to say, but there was no going back.

 

“You really lucked out getting me, then, huh?” Otogi spoke so smoothly, so sure of himself. When Ryou spoke, it felt like a matter of moments before he would collapse into pieces. “Have you been ice skating before? I'd be more than happy to show you the ropes.”

 

“No. No, I haven't before.” As they waiting in line at the rentals, Otogi talked a little bit about ice skating and actually gave him a few tips. He didn't know too much about Otogi, but he was glad that he was being kind, and while he was embarrassed, the prodding hadn't been awful. He wasn't dying or screaming internally.

 

They both paid for their skate rentals and went over towards the rink to put them on. Otogi chattered on about this and that as they sat down on a bench, and Ryou was happy just to listen and occasionally provide a brief response. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly at the skates. They looked like a pain to put on, and they were, particularly since he was tying the first one up so meticulously. Meanwhile, Otogi was some sort of speed demon who already had both of his laced up.

 

“Here, let me help you,” Otogi said, kneeling down in from of him. He started to protest, but he was quickly cut off. “Come on, I'm already down here. Don't worry, I'll do your other skate up all nice and proper.”

 

“Have you been here much?” He couldn't help asking, what with how good Otogi seems to be at tying the damn skates on. It was probably obvious that this was not something _he_ did. He finished up the one skate and Otogi was already a few moments from being done with his other one.

 

“I'd say semi often. Ice skating is pretty fun.” Otogi finished up and stood. He offered out his hand to Ryou, and they both seemed to blush when he took it. “Let's get to the rink. We'll stay on the edges first.”

 

Getting onto the ice was the absolute worst. It was awkward to walk over in the skates, and he nearly slipped before they were even in the rink. Then, they were on the ice, and he was immediately grabbing onto the edge. Otogi laughed and held his hand tighter to reassure him or something. Ryou and grace had a strange relationship. Most of the time he was borderline clumsy, but sometimes he had reflexes that displayed scary amounts of precision. It was an odd life to live, and accidentally doing the splits on a bed of ice was a real, unpleasant sounding possibility.

 

At the very least, Otogi was patient with him. Eventually, Ryou was coxed away from the wall, and they were slowly skating the big oval of the rink. It was almost fun. It would probably be more fun if he were a normal person, but he'd take what he could get. They talked about a lot of different things and nothing at all. Otogi would flirt and he would get embarrassed, but it honestly wasn't that bad. He had even jabbed back at one, and he thought he might have made Otogi blush a little. A small victory.

 

Eventually, though, the inevitable happened. Ryou put his foot down wrong, and he was slipping and falling, but he wasn't going down alone. In the heat of the moment, he made the decision that Otogi was going to go down with him via Ryou dragging him down. They were holding hands, so it was child's play. The both of them fell, backs to the ice.

 

Like a normal person, Otogi laughed it off and started to get up. Ryou, however, stayed laid back on the ice, staring far up at the ceiling. In the distance, he could hear a child telling their mother that the strange man's hair matched the ice.

 

“Earth to Ryou? Hello?” Otogi waved a hand in front of his face, and he finally bothered to look at his date again. He blinked a few times.

 

“It's okay. I'm fine,” he said this but failed to move at all. Otogi snorted and took both of his hands to start pulling him up, and since Ryou wasn't an asshole, he helped instead of remaining as limp as a rag doll. “There will be no escape from the spots where ice flakes melt into this cardigan.”

 

“I honestly can't tell if you're trying to joke with me or not,” Otogi said, giving him a somewhat perplexed look. All Ryou did in response was shrug and take his date's hand again, so they could start skating again.

 

Ryou fell a couple more times before they were done.

 

They parted on good terms after skating for about an hour and a half. Ryou had a hard time believing that they had gone that long without it becoming terrible and awkward. Otogi had to help him gt his skates off, and he wasn't particularly proud of that, but none of Otogi's joking was mean spirited.

 

He might have actually had fun. Maybe dating wasn't awful. That or this had all been one big fluke. Anzu _had_ said 'dates,' so he supposed he would find out soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo geez, this chapter came out much longer than I felt capable of making it. Granted, it still isn't that long. But hey, enter Otogi. The first of several potential (boy)friends. We're all gonna have a fun time here, I promise. This is a fun happy story being written for good times and general enjoyment.

**Author's Note:**

> So, yeah, this is my first attempt at writing fic in a long while. I've never been able to keep a multi-chapter story going before, but I'm feeling really hopeful about this one. I might actually be able to do it. Now, some of you may end up disappointed since literally none of the ships I'm doing in this fic are popular ones. You'll get over it or stop reading, I'm sure
> 
> Anyway, see you whenever the hell I update this.


End file.
